Kettering & District Car Club

by Terry ‘Timo’ Nowlan

As we merrily made our way home following the Mid Wales rally with another finish and a trouble free run, well apart from a small over crest moment and a cutting out engine, but was to be for me an unrewarding rally. As we finished I had made my mind up that we, really meaning me must do better next time out, as Ben had again performed brilliantly (apart that is from the over the crest moment!) And when he did finish his laughing apology, cowering behind his clip board as we crossed the flying finish, correctly pointed out “well we got round it” perhaps that’s the way to do it. Bring on the Bulldog.

With the car requiring minimum attention it was returned to Q as ever to check over as necessary and report. To be honest for the first time we experienced a full arrive and drive package, and therefore have know idea what the car had done to it. As both Ben and I were mad busy at work and with me working away through several weekends left the small detail of the car to Q and Kev, so I apologise to them both if I have belittled the pre event preparations. I have to say though that what a way to go rallying, having built, crashed, repaired, towed, crashed repaired loaded, unloaded and without doubt crashed again. To arrive at the event having not seen the car since the Mid Wales to find it stickered up, Scrutineered, fuelled, re-shod and ready to rally under the service awning in Wales was fantastic.

As ever Ben had selected and secured a very suitable licensed hotel, and with the added bonus of sharing accommodation and a restaurant reservation with Ian Drummond his co-driver Yvonne, Rob and the boys and our team, all looked good for a fun night.

Ben and I had not had the opportunity to meet prior to the event so had been unable to review the notes/safety DVD together, however he and Rob had clearly spent hours watching/adjusting the notes, and only finally completing them late on the eve of the rally long after I had retired to bed not really feeling myself, but without anyone else to feel took my pint of Guinness as a friendly companion to bed!

I was awoken early by the sound of Rob starting and unloading Ian’s car from his trailer outside my window, not funny! Ian was to drive his car to the start as he had not driven his car since an unfortunate R.A.C outing the previous November.

The stages used on the Bulldog are some of the most famous and exiting stages in Wales. The early morning weather was damp but the forecast was for a clear dry day. As we set off for the first stage I felt determined to have a go and having competed on the event last year felt that I was running out of excuses. Ben outlined some of the note changes he had made and it was clear from these that he too was looking to improve on our previous outings with a certain amount of commitment required to fully benefit from these changes .

Stage one was an 8.8 mile run through Dyfnant the notes worked brilliantly and although the early morning rain had made the surface very slippy it felt good and we seemed to be going at a much better pace than any previous outing.

Stage two was a cracking 15.34 mile romp through the famous Gartheiniog stage, and it was fantastic everything felt great, and as I said to Ben, “that was the quickest I have ever driven on a stage.” As the day progressed I was to repeat that sentence on every stage, it just all seemed to click for us and without it scaring the life out of me. The scariest thing to happen during the day was the speed at which we were destroying tyres (thanks Rob), having to change the rears at every service as they were truly finished.

As we progressed through the day we were steadily moving up the field and as we reached the final short 0.8 mile Wood yard stage having driven quickly and safely I was looking forward to being able to study the results and stage times at the finish. Now what happened on the last corner of the last stage as we passed the flying finish is a little unexplainable, what can possibly go wrong in .80 of a mile? Not a lot if you pay attention to your co driver. I however did not listen as we approached the flying finish, all I could focus on was the finish line and not the huge jump or more importantly the 6 left over the finish. As Ben reiterated his call we took off passing the finish board in the air and heading for an array of ugly very metallic looking agricultural machinery. Air brakes on! We fortunately landed heavily but safe and made our way to the time control to answer the question of the marshal “what the hell happened then!” we were still laughing as we drove off on the short road section soon realising as the car was very nearly undrivable the result of two bent steering arms.

We drove over the finish ramp delighted in our best days rallying yet. It was later that Q discovered that we had also broken the clutch slave cylinder as we landed and lost all the fluid on the journey home. A little lucky at the finish and proving that it’s not over until it’s over.

My thanks again go to Ben as Cheshire cat as ever and his professional and time consuming efforts before and during the event truly paying off. Q and Kev for the pre and on event support brilliant as ever. Well done to Ian for his clear run having not been out for a long time. And on top of a great day we won a pair of tyres and a set of Mintex pads for best improvement on seeding Greeerrrrrrr.

Next event: The Scottish on June 25th.

Mark Tugwell/ Tim Tugwell      Hilman Avenger

In hindsight there were so many reasons why I should have pulled our entry for the Riponian 2011, but it is the only event that uses some of the best Yorkshire stages and I was determined to do it.
The replacement engine sourced from Mal was of unknown condition but originally of Skip Brown pedigree, though 1986 vintage!
Having fitted it in the car I did do a compression test before even firing it up.
No1 – 180lbs
No2 – 180lbs
No 3 – 150lbs
No4 – 100lbs
Again, that is when I should have stopped.
After spinning the engine over without plugs to get the oil flowing, plugs were fitted and it started on about the third turn of the key and showed a healthy 60lb oil pressure.
A run down the road and it felt good, not the animal our Mal special was but OK.
Saturday afternoon at Thirsk and scrutineering and documentation were a mere formality and we met up with Nigel and Andy and went to find our accommodation for the night.
Mark drove the Avenger from the Rural Centre to the Thirsk race course and said it felt OK but that the tick over was some what erratic.
Sunday morning and again Mark drove the Avenger back to the rural centre with no problems.
A quick chat with Alan and John and we were off to start stage 1.
We had only done 3 miles, when the engine went sick.
Fortunately we were able to contact Nigel and get him to join us. Mark and I changed the distributor cap and rotor arm and when Nigel arrived we fitted 4 new plugs, 3 & 4 were oiled up. The engine was good again so off we went to stage 1.
About 2 miles into the stage the engine went lumpy again but kept going. On the road section to stage 2 the engine seemed to clear itself.
Stage 2 again it went lumpy mid stage. With 2 more stages until service this was how it went on, fortunately the stages were only short.
At service another set of plugs and a bit of distributor tweaking seamed to do the trick and off to do 2 more stages before retuning to Thirsk for half way service.
Stage 5 all went well and we thought we had it sorted. Wrong!
Halfway through stage 6 and the engine all but died but Mark managed to coax it to the end of stage and back to Thirsk for service.
Service and another change of plugs. The radiator was found to require a couple of pints of water but nothing else untoward.
As there was another 4 stages before next service we decided that we would take plugs and spanners with us and change them at the beginning of each stage.
The run out to stage 6 and the engine ran fine so we elected to leave the plugs alone.
All was well until just before the stage finish, when again it went sick.
On the road section it was so bad that we had to stop. Again plugs were changed even though they looked OK, on trying to start it felt like the timing had too much advance so we tweaked the distributor and away we went again.
The next 3 short stages weren’t too bad although for the first time the engine temperature had started to rise, although not alarmingly so.
At service we found we needed more water and the unanimous decision was that the head gasket was on the way out.
With just 2 stages to complete we removed the thermostat and strapped a container of water to the roll cage.
We flew through stage 11, Mark and car in harmony, it felt like a really quick time although by now the stages were cutting up quite badly and the pot holes were doing Mark’s bad back no good at all.
With the engine running fine it was across the road for the last stage.
All was well until about 2 miles into the stage when again the engine went lumpy and the temperature started to climb.
At the end of a long straight there was an acute hairpin where Mark took an over enthusiastic cut which saw us bog down in some deep ruts causing the engine to stall.
No matter how much pushing from the spectators the engine refused to fire and we were pushed off stage into retirement, only 2 miles from the finish!
On removing the plug from no 4 cylinder we found we now had a water pump under the bonnet!
Fortunately I had, had the foresight to tell Nigel to stay at the last service halt to wait for us.
Unfortunately, where we had retired there was no telephone signal and a message to Nigel had to be relayed by fellow competitors.
Nigel joined us eventually and after having had to wait until the course closing car had gone through it was a long cold return to Thirsk on the end of a tow rope.
A sad end to what had been a challenging but enjoyable event.
We will be back!

Tim.

This is the first round of the British Historic Rally Championship and as it’s based in Newtown Wales the crews only had a short run to some of the best gravel stages in the world. The event consisted of five stages with two visits to a central service area at the Sweet Lamb complex then the ceremonial finish back at Theatr Hafren in Newtown.

Three crews from KDCC were there to tackle the challenges that lay ahead on the Saturday. Rob Smith/ Shaun O Gorman in their Vauxhall Chevette HSR, Terry Nowlan/ Ben Giles in the Mk1 RS1600 they campaigned last year and Bill Douglas/ Stephen Hancock in their Volvo 240.

As Shaun is a Newtown fellow he kindly booked the accommodation in the centre of Newtown itself, so there ended up being ten of us there for the evenings proceedings, very social and entertaining!!

Fortunately I woke minus a fuzzy head which was a great start so off we went to get the rally car out of Park Ferme, this was a slight worry as the car nearly didn’t start, it eventually fired and once out we secured the additional power pack inside the car and headed off to the town centre for the ceremonial start hosted by Howard Davis and theMayor of Newtown.

Stage 1: Hafren South 1: This stage was 12 miles long so if anyone was napping they would definitely get caught out early on. We started well and felt like we were pushing enough considering how rough it was. If Terry was napping he certainly wasn’t after the 8 mile point, there was a tight right after a blind crest and 200 yard straight, unfortunately I’d only read the flat left and flat right just before the crest. I called the crest tight right just as we got to it, travelling at what I thought at the time was way too fast, and out of my window travelling sideways I could only see fresh air this was slightly worrying. But to my amazement the car just turned in and Timo hit the throttle and launched us round the corner, I was back on the notes instantly and we got to the end of the stage with no more moments. I could only cover my face with shame at the end of the stage for making such a mistake, but fortunately as we got out of it ok we were both laughing our heads off!!

First service was next and when we got there Phil Mills was waiting there to see how we’d been getting on, very nice I thought. The crew (Quent and Big Kev) set to work on the car and after they’d checked all the usual things we decided to remove the power pack as she’d been starting ok so far.

Stage 2: Hafren North: Everybody had been telling us that this was a cracking stage and in perfect condition as it had been re-graded after last year’s Rally GB and unused since. As we’re queuing up for the start I noticed Rob Smith’s car parked up, that’s not good he’s running over 40 minutes in front of us I thought. I went to speak to him and found out that his engine made one of those terrible internal noises then instantly stopped; this obviously led to their unfortunate retirement gutted. Well everyone was right Hafren North was brilliant, smooth and fast with some technical sections in there as well. A good clean run through there and then off to Hafren South 2. We’d had a great stage the notes were spot on Terry had driven brilliantly, just the last hairpin and then finish line, the car stalled at said hairpin and refused to start. Specys to the rescue, just as they started pushing us the car behind came by and then she fired into life and crossed the line. We were gutted, we thought we had that stage nailed only to be denied on the last corner. At least we only had a short run to the second and last service of the day where we could recharge ourselves!!

The service crew worked frantically as we decided to change the starter to see if that was causing the trouble, once changed she still didn’t want to start without the power pack so we ended up strapping that back in the car for the last two stages.

Stage 4: Pikes Peak: This is a very fast stage that starts at the bottom of a hill and climbs for around 300ft to the top via a series of huge hairpins that are literally big enough to get an artic lorry round with a wind turbine lying on the back. It then drops slightly while passing past the wind farm and about 10 cattle grids either on seriously fast bits or entries to bends; very tricky indeed, we managed not to collect any of these on our way. The huge hairpins had huge grin factor, they were so big Terry was able to chuck the car in on full lock in 3^rd or even 4^thgear and just keep it lit all the way round, very satisfying!

Stage 5: Myherin: Ten miles of some of Wales’ finest lay between us and the finish. There were some long straights in here with numerous flat crests which really tested the nerves then some long fast sections on very loose gravel down to the finish, where we saw Paul Griffiths’ off, he was beached only a cars width off the stage so any mistakes would undoubtedly be punished. We made it to the end with no real dramas but both having loved the last two stages in particular.

Back to Theatr Hafren for the ceremonial finish and a few beers. Whilst we were having a pint Shaun pointed out to me that our time for stage 4 looked like it had had a minute added onto it so we went to check it out, unsurprisingly he was right we’d been given a duff time. Unfortunately they had been made final only a few minutes earlier! The moral of the story: always check your stage times.

We finished 21^st overall in Category 2 and 6^thin Class C5, not too bad a start to the season so thanks to Terry for getting us round without incident and as usual the ever dependable Quent and Kev.

Bill and Stephen had an excellent result finishing 27th overall in category 3 and also taking the class win for D4.

David Wickes/ Ben Giles            Mk2 Golf GTI

The Wyedean Rally, based at Chepstow, is the first BTRDA event of the season and also the first proper gravel rally of any of the championships so it is treated by many as a shakedown event and is therefore incredibly popular.

With the Golf all repaired after a test at Walters Arena at the end of last year including a freshly built gearbox and completely strengthened front end we put our entry in and ended up on the reserve list! Fortunately for us a few competitors didn’t manage to get their cars ready in time so with a week to go we had an entry and was seeded car 113, maybe unlucky for some!

As per usual David, Terry and I rocked up once the car had been scrutineered so all we had to do was sign on and then go to the digs! Perfect I’d say!

By the time we got to the start ramp it was looking like it was going to be a great day weather wise as it was warm already, so off to the first stage Chepstow Park.

We got off to a bit of a rocky start with the notes not seeming to flow very well and then David’s driving gloves came scooting across the dash and landed at my feet, funny!! After a mile or so we both settled down and ended up having a reasonable stage even catching and passing the car in front. Now there are a few things you should never say in a rally car and on the road section to stage two David uttered one of those fatal quotes: “Well at least the car’s not broken yet!” I kid you not 30 seconds later the car cut out! Then it fired up again, then it cut out again well I’m sure you can get the picture. We managed to get to the second stage with the intermittent fault still going on. Unfortunately this stage was cancelled due to a specy getting hit by a pebble! Just after this stage was service and the boys checked every connection they could but as we found out as we were driving out to no avail. So we decided to battle through it and go and do stage three Speechouse. After another delay we finally got to the start line and the car was actually behaving itself or it was until I got to the 30 second count down, this is when it started fluffing. It gradually got worse and as I started the final countdown from 5 it died on the line so I continued counting down in the hope it might restart in time, it didn’t! After what seemed like an eternity it finally fired up and off we roared down the stage, well for about 50 yards then it died again, another 30 seconds gone and the car behind came past another 20 seconds or so then she fired up again, this went on for the first 2/3rds of the stage. During all this we managed to hit a post, David thought I should’ve called it but as we could see it for around 200 yards I didn’t think I needed to!!! No real damage done so at least we could laugh about it. During the last third of the stage the car seemed to behave itself and we started going at a proper pace even catching the car in front by the end, but it wasn’t to last. On the road section back to service the car made a few seriously loud backfires and then bowed out. The management crew (an unbelievable term for Quent and Terry!) were just behind so we soon got a tow back to service. Retirement was conceded an hour later when no cure could be found!

I have to say well done to David for getting as far as he did. I’ve never seen anybody flick the master switch on and off whilst trying to bump start the car and also travelling at competitive speeds so many times in one stage without any major offs!

Thanks to Quent and Terry for doing management and the service crew Kev and Glen. Cheers David and I hope we have better luck next time.

Once back home the car was unload and a new Crank Angle Sensor was fitted, she fired up first time! Guess we’ll always have one of those in the car now.

Friday 26^th November

So the scenes set; it’s Friday night at Pickering Showground, there’s the most snow there’s been in 20 years and there’s us and four other Kettering District Car Club crews ready to start the event.

We sat there on the approach to stage 1 (Pickering Showground) watching other crews trying to get off the line, it’s no exaggeration when I say you could’ve almost walked to the first corner faster. It was sheet ice and even the marshals were struggling to stand up and after seeing everyone else wheel spinning of the line through all the gears and still not getting anywhere quickly we were wondering how we’d get on! Well it was unbelievable, I’m sure we were in 4^th gear before we were making any sort of headway down the stage but once going it was just a case of keeping on what you thought was the stage, we made it to the end with no damage and in 2m30s! So off to the second stage: Dalby 1.

The entrance to this stage was up a single track lane which was originally going to be used as the exit only, having two way traffic going up here in normal conditions would be tricky enough but the road was again like sheet ice and made this journey almost impossible. We finally made it to the stage start after having to push the car front for about a mile because there was that little traction and there was no way by. We also got hit by oncoming cars that had nowhere to go and were literally just sliding down the road. Unfortunately at the start of stage 2 we saw Ian Drummond parked up with a knackered car and out of the event, gutting so early on as well! So we started Dalby with no idea of what it was going to be like in there, apart from where we’d had a few cautions of icy bits here and there. Well the snow in places must have been 2-3 feet deep where it had been cleared out of the way, our aim very quickly turned to just getting to the end of the stage with as little drama as possible, if only. At the first slippy bit over a crest we went off on the right hand side at less than walking pace but luckily managed to drive out a bit further up the stage we came across the car we’d been pushing earlier blocking the stage, we tried to drive round him but got stuck! Luckily a load of speckys came to our aid and eventually pushed us out, but not before 4 cars had gone past! Eventually we got to the end of the stage and then just had the treacherous lane to negotiate before heading back to service. On the way back we were convinced that that would be the last rallying we would be doing that night, they couldn’t possibly be running that again? Or could they? We soon had our answer they, would be running Pickering and Dalby again, I couldn’t believe it. “On with the snow tyres” was the call from Terry. We couldn’t believe the difference, through Pickering the second time we were 42 seconds quicker and then once we got to Dalby 2 Terry found he could actually drive the car with a certain degree of control, we even caught and passed a couple of cars as well a time of 7m13s we were well chuffed! So back to service at silly o’clock for a beer and to tell all of the evenings tales!

At this point Rob Smith and Shaun O Gorman were leading the event overall, an amazing feat. Terry and I were 59^th o/all and the Tugwells were 8 places in front of us at 51. Andy Madge and Pat Cooper were lying 9^th in the Open Rally after an excursion into a snow bank and Bill Douglas/Dave Tearl retired from the Dalby Night Stages Rally after the 2^nd stage with traction problems!!!

Saturday 27^th November

First call was Rally HQ for the mornings briefing to find out whether we’d be doing any stages today, we were informed that Olivers Mount would still run and so would Langdale, albeit both shortened somewhat!

On the run out to the first Olivers Mount stage it was clear that there hadn’t been too much snow overnight but temperatures had plummeted to -7C so ice was obviously going to be the problem, we witnessed this first hand on the road section. We were following one of the Belgiums in a Porsche and while he was going along on a straight piece of road he lost the back end and went spinning down the road into a parked car, we were probably doing no more than 20mph it was oh so slippy!

We were warned that the stage was very icy so were told to be very careful, there were cars getting stuck just trying to get to the start line! So off we went and just like Pickering Showground we seemed to be in 4^th gear before we were even going anywhere, but at least we were going, we got round the first uphill hairpin ok then saw the Stringers and Steve P up on the bank so gave the mandatory hoot! Flat up the hill into hairpin left was next, Timo got it spot on, unfortunately as we entered the hairpin we realised something was afoot as there was ticker tape across the track so a quick abort and we carried straight on and round to the stage finish! It’s a good job we can laugh about these things, somehow they’d managed to miss us in the queue so we didn’t get the stage amendment!!! So back to the start for the second run through, much the same really except for not turning left when we should’ve gone straight on then we were off to Langdale to see if we could get a run round there.

After a long wait on the road section to Langdale Colin ‘should be the Prime Minister’ Heppenstall (Rally Manager) was waiting at the end and gave us the amendments to the stage it was a few miles shorter and the exit was different but at least it was running. This wouldn’t be the last time we’d see Colin on our travels somehow keeping the rally running! Well Langdale was interesting, you could really feel the snow tyres working which was incredible but it was also still very difficult because in some places you could barely make out where the stage should be. The first run through here turned out to be our best stopping the clock 26^th quickest. It was then a brief visit to service and then back off to do two more runs around Olivers Mount and another run through Langdale this would be the last time we’d have a proper main service till Carlisle later in the night. We weren’t so lucky the second time through Langdale, we came across car 61 stuck and blocking the stage, eventually we managed to get him going again but this cost us 6 minutes not good! There were rumours that Hamsterly would be cancelled altogether but yet again Mr Heppenstall was en-route to give us more amendments. They had managed to make a stage out of the passable parts of Hamsterly and had decided to give us two runs through to at least get some stage mileage back. It appeared that it was more dangerous on the runs to the stage starts than the stages themselves again we were in a very long queue to the start and there was a number of cars unable to get up a hill unbelievably one of these cars was number 61 again which Terry found very amusing! I lost count of how many cars we actually had to push up the hill but one of them was another Belgium who’d had half a dozen attempts before, on his last attempt, managing to reverse into the front of our car smashing one of our spot lamps. We had two relatively clean runs through and on the first run we caught and passed Dave Watkins and also managed to avoid the carnage that was poking into the stage!

Just Shepherdsheild to do now, so off we went for the trek up to the Kielder complex. This was a stage we were both looking forward to as we’d done the Pirelli earlier in the year so we knew what to expect, or so we thought! On the forest entrance to the stage there was two brand new 4×4 vehicles in the ditch, we’re now thinking it must be bad in here! As we queued up for the start it began to snow like you wouldn’t believe this unfortunately carried on for the whole stage, visibility was literally zero! We ended up in a convoy of four cars just hoping to get to the end, we did and picked up a maximum for our troubles.

By now it was 1am and we had a 50 minute run ahead of us to Carlisle Racecourse where the final service of the day was to take place. Fair play to the service crew, considering the cold and stupid time in the morning they had food and beer ready for us and the management crew when we all finally arrived back. Once the car was serviced six of us squeezed into the Shogun and finally got to bed at around 3am, the problem was we had to be back up at 6.30am!! On the scoreboard we were lying 53^rd overall, but at least we were still in it!

Rob and Shaun had suffered some bad luck earlier in the day picking up a puncture in the Hamsterly stage and dropping around 45 seconds putting him down to 3^rd for the second overnight halt. Rob would be pushing hard the next day as he was leading the event overall until stage 8 where Stefan Stouf just edged out a bit of a lead.

Team Tugwell were lying 58^th overall at the halt. Unfortunately they had suffered a broken axle and had to miss the Shepherdsheild stage and get towed directly to service, they were still changing the axle when we left service at 2.45am. The following day Tim told me he’d spent the night in the van because it was too late to get back to the digs, the temperature that night went down to around -12C.

Keeping on the axle front Andy and Pat were having to have theirs changed in the trusty Toyota due to concerning noises and also a rebuilt rear silencer was fitted due to the other one diminishing throughout the day.

Sunday 28^th November

Today would take the rally up to Dumfries with stages in Ae, Twigliees and Heathall all with double usage, then in the evening we’d be heading back over to the Kielder complex to do the Newcastleton stage. Again we found ourselves in the tyre dilemma we still only had the four snow tyres but we knew there was potentially still two days rallying to do, we eventually decided to do Ae and Twigliees on the snow tyres and see how it went. We had great runs through both stages and going on the snow tyres was definitely the right choice because of the ice. But towards the end of the Twiglees stage it was just gravel and the snow tyres on the back were nearly destroyed. After the road section back down to Dumfries we had the 1 mile Heathall Stage, we were trying to see how many times you could spin in the shortest distance (Oh we were good!) The service proved to be interesting, Terry’s car was once driven by Timo Makinen who used it on various world and domestic events, after that it was bought by Murray Grierson in 1972 who campaigned it successfully for a number of years. Well Murray was in the area and actually came to service to find Terry and have a look round his old car, he was certainly impressed with it and told us some good stories from when he owned it just a shame we didn’t have more time.

For the second run through Ae and Twigliees we went with gravel tyres, we were glad we did as any ice that was left had all but gone. Two more clean runs then another blast through Heathhall saw us back into service for some well-earned grub and a cuppa. We were told to head to Newcastleton and once there we would be informed of what was going on, the stage was definitely going to be shorter but at this point nobody knew how. Again Colin Heppenstall was at the run up to the stage start and we were told that the stage would be shortened, which was no great surprise, and that we’d only be getting one run through it instead of the two runs which was originally intended. We were disappointed but once again at least we were rallying and the organisers had managed to keep the event running.

Once at the start line we could see why we were only getting one run through there was a Saab being pushed back off the line as he couldn’t even get going it was that slippy! Once he’d been moved there was a Porsche to go then us. As we pulled up to the line the co-driver from the Porsche that had just left came running back up the stage he’d gone off on the very first corner. Once away we could see the full extent of the snow it was far higher than the side of the car and just a few inches off line would see us in ditch along with many others. We made it to the end of probably the most difficult stage we’d ever done, that was that for the night, time to get back to service and have a beer or two, this fortunately turned into more than a few as we managed to keep the bar open at the digs!!!

Not only were we pleased to be still in the rally but we’d managed to claw our way back up to 38^th overall. Rob and Shaun was one of the unlucky ones in Newcastleton, they went off over a brow and were stuck in the snow thus resulting in their unfortunate retirement. This was a great shame as the pair had fought long and hard all day with Stefan Stouf (who was still leading) and they had managed to close the 1m03s deficit from the overnight halt to just 12s by the time they’d finished stage 18, unlucky boys!

The Tugwells were still going well on their first outing the newly built Historic Avenger they’d survived the day’s traumas and were now lying just two positions behind us at 40^th overall.

Andy and Pat had moved up one position from the early mornings start and were now 3^rd overall in the open Rally and 1^st in their respective class.

Monday 29^th November

Back at the Racecourse at a rather reasonable 9am (with no fuzzy head amazingly) to find out what was going on today. We would be doing a stage in Kershope, run twice to give us some mileage, instead of the 4 stages in Rooken and Highfield. This was again due to the snow, the stages on the other side of Kielder were impassable and so were most of the road sections.

After three days of what is soon to be described as the toughest RAC to date we were looking forward to a relatively easy day. We weren’t leaving service untill10am and then a 40minute run to Kershope twice round there then back to the finish! Well the first problem hit before we had even left the start, the car refused to start it took over half an hour of frantic work from the boys to finally get it fired up much to the relief of Terry and I!! On the way to the stage the intercom started playing up, Terry could hear me but I couldn’t hear him, the right way round for the stages but very unsociable. We also saw some amazing views through the valleys everything was now covered in frozen snow after another night of around -10C.

There was a long wait again at the start of the stage, while the organisers sorted the final details, and whilst there Kev Gardiner and Mark Foster came wandering up to see us. They’d actually been spectating since Friday night and it was great to them there still supporting all of us, proper speckys! Terry and I decided that caution was the best tact as we’d come this far we just wanted to get to the finish in one piece! So off we went down the stage it was extremely snowy and most of the stage had become polished ice, we saw Guy Smith in a ditch and both felt for him having come this far but on the very next straight it happened! We just got a couple of inches off line and just got sucked into the ditch, we probably went about 80 yards before bottoming the car out on some gravel, “that’s knackered that then” I said, fortunately due to the broken intercom I couldn’t hear Timos response! I tried pushing the car but it was stuck fast, until two spectators and a marshal came running up the stage to our aid complete with shovels, they somehow managed to get the car jacked up and by shoving branches underneath the car and with us all pushing, the car finally popped out. Absolute heroes! So, unbelievably we made it to the end of the stage, I asked Terry if he wanted to go through again, stupid question I already knew the answer so off we went to do our final stage. By the time we got back up to the start we ended up behind the Course Closing Car after a little bit of begging they allowed us to go and do our last run. This was a very social stage we almost came to a halt thanking the Stringers and Steve P for coming out spectating and we also stopped and thanked the two spectators who’d helped us out of the ditch and they gave us our jack and spade back that had been left behind after our off!

It was a unique feeling going through that stage all the marshals and all the spectators were clapping at us and even after we’d finished the stage the marshals on the road sections were cheering as well.

So we made it to the ceremonial finish in Carlisle city centre, Kev, Mark and the whole of our service crew were there to see us through. What an event, certainly one I’ll never forget. We then went back to the Racecourse for one of the most important parts of the event, the bar where all the weekend stories could be shared over a couple of pints and also the prize giving.

The only KDCC crew to pick up a pot was Andy and Pat for 1^st in class E2 and they finished 3^rd overall in the RAC Open Rally. Team Tugwell finished 35^rd overall pipping us by one place on the last but one stage.

The other notable award that was given out was the Spirit of the Rally Award, usually this would go to the crew that had overcome the most adversity to get to the finish but this year it was quite rightly given to the rally manager Colin Heppenstall for keeping the rally running under the most adverse conditions.

Last but not at all least I would like to thank Terry for once again getting us through the toughest rally either of us will probably ever do, Quent and Joey who were our Shogun shadow for the weekend as management and Kev and Glen for providing all we could possibly require at service.

Brilliant, I can only wonder at what this year’s event will throw our way!

Ben Giles

There were five crews out from KDCC for this gruelling event which started out from Pickering on Friday and headed north throughout the weekend to Carlisle and Dumfries and then back to Carlisle on the Monday for the ceremonial finish.

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This is certainly something different. Bobby Frankham and Julia Manneh are competing in The Plymouth-Banjul Challenge which is part of the Dakar Challenge.

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Have a look at the following video clips…. Continue reading →

Rob Smith/ Shaun O Gorman-Chevette HSR
Terry Nowlan/ Ben Giles– Mk1 RS1600

This rally was to be the venue for Team Timo Nowlan’s next adventure and Rob Smiths fifth BHRC round. For both crews this would be a trip into the unknown world of closed-road rallying as neither had been on the Irish Lanes before, Continue reading →

Rob Smith/Ben Giles

By Ben Giles

The Pacemaker Road Rally is a round of the Welsh Road Rally Championship and is organised by Knighton Motor Club Limited. The rally was based at Bishops Castle with halfway at Knighton.

When I returned from my annual holiday my boss, Rob Smith, informed Continue reading →